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Vincenzo Di Meglio
Vincenzo Di Meglio (April 1903, Ischia, Italy - 1987, Italy) was an Italian physician and political leader, who moved to live to the Italian eastern Africa in the 1930s, where he actively defended the Italian colonialists for an Italy-dependent Eritrea nation, particularly against the Kingdom British regional rule. Such commitment extended along the War II Second-World-War years until the 1960s, including important personal interventions of Di Meglio in the [United Nations. Early life Di Meglio was borne at Ischia island, off [Naples, Italy, in 1903. After an early involvement in local politics, he precociously assumed as the mayor of his own hometown in his twenties. Also, he completed the career of Medicine. Eritrea In 1935, Di Meglio moved to the eastern Italian colonies of Africa, initially attending the local poor. In 1939, he was convoked for the charge of Vice-Director of Gynecology at the "Regina Elena" hospital of Asmara, by the Eritrean governor, Giuseppe Daodiace, For Eritrea During the war, Di Meglio was an active public figure, for the Eritrean independence in behalf of his fellow Italian colonists. Then, in 1945 he became the director of the Commitato Rappresentativo Italiani dell' Eritrea (CRIE, Committee of Italian representatives in Eritrea), which particularly opposed the British rule after the British occupation since 1941, and he also was close to the local figures who claimed for independence, Woldeab Woldemariam and Abdel Kader Kebir amongst others. Hence, Di Meglio then became the target for some assassination attacks from the Scifta faction, but he managed surviving those. Particularly, since 1945 Britain had attempted, so the Eritrean territory was divided between Sudan and Ethiopia. In 1947, Di Meglio personally traveled to the Nations, personally convincing some of its representatives, who were particularly South American, so the final voting of the UN on the matter was against the British plans, and for the integrity of Eritrea. Also in 1947, Di Meglio participated in the foundation of two organizations for congregating the Italian colonists, the Associazione Italo-Eritrei and the Associazione Veterani Ascari. This directly ensued, with Di Meglio's important role, in the creation of the Partito Eritrea Pro Italia, in September 1947 with 200,000 members. Disregarding, the amount of actually Italo-Eritrean people had already been decimated down to about 40,000. The downturn would happen in 1950, when by decision of the United Nations Eritrea finally would be annexed as a province into Ethiopia (1953); Di Meglio fruitlessly was again there in New york, in representation of the groups for the national independence. Disregarding, in 1951 Di Meglio opened an organization, Casa degli Italiani (House of the Italians), for congregating the Italian colonists at Asmara. However, also in that year, Di Meglio was expatriated to Saudi Arabia by the British authorities, then forcibly closing the CRIE. Nonetheless, officially supported by the Italian government, Di Meglio kept fruitlessly asking for an Italian Fiduciary administration, by which an independent Eritrea would have some dependency to Italy, until he gave up such campaigns finally in 1960. Death After that, Di Meglio was Director of Gynecology again in an Eritrean hospital until 1961, when he finally returned to Italy. Di Meglio died in his native country, in March 1987. External links *Vincenzo Di Meglio, at the Wikipedia *Italo-Eritreia, at the Italian Wikipedia Category:Kingdom of Italy